O Christ! This is mastering me!
In at the conquer’d doors they crowd. I am possess’d.
[37.1]
I embody all presences outlaw’d or suffering; 945
See myself in prison shaped like another man,
And feel the dull unintermitted pain.
[37.2]
For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep watch;
It is I let out in the morning, and barr’d at night.
[37.3]
Not a mutineer walks handcuff’d to jail, but I am handcuff’d to him and walk by his side; 950
(I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one, with sweat on my twitching lips.)
[37.4]
Not a youngster is taken for larceny , but I go up too, and am tried and sentenced.
[37.5]
Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp, but I also lie at the last gasp;
My face is ash-color’d—my sinewsgnarl —away from me people retreat.
[37.6]
Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embodied in them; 955
I project my hat, sit shame-faced, and beg.
[37.7]
37.
O Christ! This is mastering me!
In at the conquer’d doors they crowd. I am possess’d.
[37.1]
I embody all presences outlaw’d or suffering; 945
See myself in prison shaped like another man,
And feel the dull unintermitted pain.
[37.2]
For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep watch;
It is I let out in the morning, and barr’d at night.
[37.3]
Not a mutineer walks handcuff’d to jail, but I am handcuff’d to him and walk by his side; 950
(I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one, with sweat on my twitching lips.)
[37.4]
Not a youngster is taken for larceny , but I go up too, and am tried and sentenced.
[37.5]
Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp, but I also lie at the last gasp;
My face is ash-color’d—my sinews gnarl —away from me people retreat.
[37.6]
Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embodied in them; 955
I project my hat, sit shame-faced, and beg.
[37.7]
< < previous . . . . . . . next > >